TT Training Day 7 - 07.28.2015

Tough day with zhe wang. Need to bring towel/water next time. :P

• FH-FH - For shorter shots, move both feet in: right foot then left foot. Hit forward and spin the ball instead of hitting it.

• BH-BH - Hit forward.

• Forehand topspin in middle, backhand, forehand topspin in middle, forehand topspin on forehand side: On step around, move right foot then left foot since I have trouble maintaining my stance balance when moving all at once.

• Serve backspin, he short push, I short push, he push to my forehand, loop the backspin, random while I return to his backhand: Stay leaning forward. Make sure to rotate on forehand. I did a good job on keeping paddle up. Need to return to ready position after the forehand loop on the backspin. Did this for about 30 mins.

• Serve backspin, he push long to my backhand, backhand loop, then I hit backhand, forehand on backhand side, forehand on forehand side: Had trouble with my backhand loops. Spent about 5 mins on technique. Need to work on this in future.Spent about 5-10 mins on this.

• Serve backspin, he push long to my forehand, forehand loop, backhand, forehand on backhand side, forehand on forehand side: I was pretty tired at this point but during some rallies I was in a zone where I could see and hit the ball really well. Last 10-15 mins felt like they lasted forever.

Overall: Did a good job on forehand loops against backspin today. Probably 85%-90% on the weak drill backspins. Two points to forever remember: rotate body and not use just arm. And hit the ball at the peak of the flight path.

Work on long backhand loops. Stay leaning forward. Remember to brush the ball.

TT Training Day 6 - 7.21.2015

Coach Mark today.

FH-FH - He was hitting the ball to me and it was strangely tough to get it back on the table just flat hitting. Got used to it after a few misses.

FH looping vs block - Graze top of ball to make the looping sound vs the hit sound. Remember to stay low after consecutive loops to get better brushing contact on ball. Try to use legs and torso on loop. Don't drop paddle too much and generally keep paddle high!

BH-BH - Nothing specific comes to mind.

BH looping vs block - I have a bad habit of lowering the paddle after the loop. Keep it high and contact closer to body without reaching. Work on this in future! Graze top of ball - should make looping sound.

Serve, chop, loop the backspin then play out (FH then BH) - On opening loop, put more spin to keep it on table instead of driving the ball. After the first topspin, back up a little bit to have more room to react. Remember to keep paddle up! On wide shots, you can take time to rotate torso but on middle shots keep stroke shorter to get a better shot. Aim to loop each ball.

Serving - placements, mixing spins, same motion - different placements. FH pendulum, reverse pendulum, backhand serves. Note to self: On Friday, I will work on reverse pendulum and backhand serves. Especially reverse pendulum focusing on getting backspin and serving to their forehand side.

Receiving serves: Watch elbow and follow thru to figure out spin. Spent 10 mins receiving Coach Mark's serves. Probably returned about 15% (probably generous) and scored on about 5%.

Notes: Keep paddle up, even on looping. Backup half step after first topspin shot. Work on backhand looping contact point topspin and how to loop backspin backhand. Work on serving reverse pendulum backspin and to forehand. Aim to spin loop each ball.

TT Training Day 5 - 7,14.2015

Not really liking the new blade still. Will try an experiment with different rubbers on old andro blade and new blade this Friday.

First 30 mins with zhe wang. 

• FH-FH - I need to stay leaning forward after I hit. Some of my forehands are more vertical and my body follows so need to keep my stroke forward.

• BH-BH - Move to ball, don't reach.

• BH, FH on bh side, FH on FH side - I need to move after I hit the ball and stay moving. Focus on top spinning on the second forehand and stay leaning forward. Need to move faster too...

• FH in middle, BH on bh side, FH in middle, FH in fh side - Remember to hit middle shots with forehand! My forehand backhand switching is slow. 

Second 30 mins with wang shuai - multiball.

• He serves shot backspin, I push long, he will either push to my fh or loop it. If he loops, I block to his bh and random multiballs come and I topspin smash the forehand shots. If he pushes, I loop and multi-ball randomly comes and I topspin smash the forehands. - I need to move my body instead of just using arm for forehand. Make sure backhands are pushing forward and that my blocks are also moving forward. I'm having trouble blocking the second loop...need to practice this.

• He sidespin/no spin short, I BH flick it to bh, BH to BH until random forehand where I topspin smash. - Make sure to spin the ball on the flick.

• Same as above except long serves are mixed in. - I need to work on returning those long serves. He added some side-topspin serves at the end that I'm having trouble contacting. Got one good one at the end though.

Notes:

1) Work on blocking loops correctly, especially second loop.

2) Forehand moves with my body.

3) Stay leaning forward and increase stamina...

4) Maybe switch back to old paddle... :( ask wang shuai about this next week. Also come 15 mins early to warm up.

TT Day 4 - 7.7.15

Got put into wang shuai's group today. All single ball drills. The multiball coach was late so one person got assigned to mark hazinski (lucky!) and they worked on serve and serve receive (double lucky!). Day 1 playing with new paddle. Previous one was andro temper tech off- with calibras. New one is ai fukuhara zlf with mx-p. The weight is actually pretty average but much heavier than the featherweight andro paddle I had before so will take some adjustment time.

• FH/Fh- Began with forehand warmup counterhitting. Next we did 2 controlled forehand strokes, then one power shot with focus on snapping of forearm and rotation of torso to generate speed and spin. Then repeat.

• Bh/bh - Backhand counterhit first. Then we did 2 controlled backhand then one small loop focused mainly on wrist rotation and having a small stroke. Main purpose is to change the timing of the ball with more arc and spin.

• 1 FH, 1 BH - Similar to previous days. Focus on keeping my paddle up. Don't need big strokes for topspin shots. I need to work on my movement and timing for different balls (long/short/wide).

• Serve short backspin to left, return backspin to my FH, loop the backspin to right, return to my middle, FH topspin to right, return to my forehand, FH topspin to right, return to my left, BH topspin to right, then play out - 

I missed a lot of opening loops (maybe due to paddle?). It got better when I focused on snapping my forearm. Aim for 80% on opening loops on forehand! I feel like I move right a bit too slowly but coach didn't say anything about it.

• Coach serves short to my BH, BH push to his bh, he short push to my FH, BH push to his BH, he long pushes to my FH, FH loop the backspin, then play out -

Again, focus on getting 80% of my FH loops in the table, snapping forearm, and hitting forward. To do this, it is necessary to hit the ball at the top of the bounce instead of waiting too long.

Conclusion:

1) Need to improve my coordination - moving and hitting balls that are slightly different (long/short/wide) with better timing (and footwork).

2) Remember to snap forearm on FH strokes. Continue making sure I rotate my torso on FH shots.

3) Practice the 2 control 1 power shot this Friday. 

I wanna get better. (time to quit my day job? lol)